Keith Robinson

Keith Robinson

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Degree: BA
University: Kingston University

New Blood Art Commentary

Listen to Keith in conversation with Sarah on the podcast
Keith Robinson shortlisted for 2021 Scottish Portrait Awards
Notable Achievements 2021 

The familiar front of a high rise at dusk swells with cascading light. Each window block correlates into a soft patchwork pattern, breaking up the regimented architecture of steel and glass to orchestrate a painterly consideration of buildings that dominate the city’s landscape. Keith Robinson’s paintings seem to lie between Georgia O’Keefe’s romanticized depiction of New York skyscrapers and the De Stijl school of abstract painters, whose ‘concrete’ paintings contain a sense of rhythm in their shape and form. His thin and fluid palette creates a dense and shimmering mirage on canvas, playfully contradicting the very structures he is representing.

Artist Statement

I paint Tower / Office Block's for their ubiquity and banality. They are everywhere. They are at best ignored, at worst seen as eyesores. They are seldom loved. It is the visual relationship we have with them that interests me. Do I want others to notice them? Not really, I have no feelings towards them. It is their gridded structure, formed from utility, that I like as it imposes a recognisable structure to the paintings, then I can play with colour and paint application as the paintings develop. Sometimes I will refer to the time of day when I viewed the Block, sometimes I will use other artists work as colour reference, and sometimes I will create evolving colour relationships and applications within the grid.

The History Revision portraits are an attempt to re-evaluate and revise imagery of children who have been scarred by war and ideology.  These paintings are done on used painter's rags, the materials, like the images, are revised. I wanted to remove the child from ideological  association to hopefully see the child in a neutral context.

In 2021 I was the runner-up in The Scottish Portrait Awards and

I have been commissioned to do numerous portraits, notably:

- Mary Barnes O.B.E.  for Bolton Library and Museum Services (2019)

- Dr Kathryn Riddle for The University of Sheffield (2017)

- Younome - Collaboration with Professor Darren Griffin and Dr Gary Robinson at The University of Kent to produce a personalised Genome of twenty five Self Portraits. These self portraits were exhibited along the - - King's Mile in Canterbury during The Canterbury Festival 2016.

- Sir Hans Krebs for The University of Sheffield's Krebs Festival (2015)

Solo Exhibitions

(2011) A Private View Solo Exhibition, Gallery63A, Kingston-upon-Thames

Group Exhibitions

(2021) Scottish Portrait Award, Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh

(2016) B.P. Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London

(2015) HOME, The Bank, Eye, Suffolk

(2014) The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

(2014) The National Open Art Competition, Somerset House, London

(2014) Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

(2014) Art Gemini Prize Exhibition, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

(2012) The Threadneedle Prize Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

(2011) Gallery63A Summer Exhibition, Gallery63A, Kingston-upon-Thames

(2010) Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London

(2007) B.P. Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London

(2006) B.P. Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London

Competitions, Prizes & Awards

(2021) Runners Up Scottish Portrait Award

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